The Princess (part 1) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCD EFGHIJKLEMBNOPQOORSO TOUOOVWVXYZA2OVB2C2 VOD2E2VOF2G2H2V VOOOVVI2 OJ2VVK2F2L2VC2F2 HOTM2C2G2VVHOF2V N2F2O2V P2V VQ2VVOB2VA2OO R2VVVOVOVVS2OOT OVOF2OG2VT2OOXVVF2U2 OXKV2W2VVVE2VX2OOS2V 2OOJ2Y2HF2XF2L2OF2I2 VOVF2O TF2OOVVVZ2Q2A3OVOT VVOQH| A prince I was blue eyed and fair in face | A |
| Of temper amorous as the first of May | B |
| With lengths of yellow ringlet like a girl | C |
| For on my cradle shone the Northern star | D |
| - | |
| There lived an ancient legend in our house | E |
| Some sorcerer whom a far off grandsire burnt | F |
| Because he cast no shadow had foretold | G |
| Dying that none of all our blood should know | H |
| The shadow from the substance and that one | I |
| Should come to fight with shadows and to fall | J |
| For so my mother said the story ran | K |
| And truly waking dreams were more or less | L |
| An old and strange affection of the house | E |
| Myself too had weird seizures Heaven knows what | M |
| On a sudden in the midst of men and day | B |
| And while I walked and talked as heretofore | N |
| I seemed to move among a world of ghosts | O |
| And feel myself the shadow of a dream | P |
| Our great court Galen poised his gilt head cane | Q |
| And pawed his beard and muttered 'catalepsy' | O |
| My mother pitying made a thousand prayers | O |
| My mother was as mild as any saint | R |
| Half canonized by all that looked on her | S |
| So gracious was her tact and tenderness | O |
| But my good father thought a king a king | T |
| He cared not for the affection of the house | O |
| He held his sceptre like a pedant's wand | U |
| To lash offence and with long arms and hands | O |
| Reached out and picked offenders from the mass | O |
| For judgment | V |
| Now it chanced that I had been | W |
| While life was yet in bud and blade bethrothed | V |
| To one a neighbouring Princess she to me | X |
| Was proxy wedded with a bootless calf | Y |
| At eight years old and still from time to time | Z |
| Came murmurs of her beauty from the South | A2 |
| And of her brethren youths of puissance | O |
| And still I wore her picture by my heart | V |
| And one dark tress and all around them both | B2 |
| Sweet thoughts would swarm as bees about their queen | C2 |
| - | |
| But when the days drew nigh that I should wed | V |
| My father sent ambassadors with furs | O |
| And jewels gifts to fetch her these brought back | D2 |
| A present a great labour of the loom | E2 |
| And therewithal an answer vague as wind | V |
| Besides they saw the king he took the gifts | O |
| He said there was a compact that was true | F2 |
| But then she had a will was he to blame | G2 |
| And maiden fancies loved to live alone | H2 |
| Among her women certain would not wed | V |
| - | |
| That morning in the presence room I stood | V |
| With Cyril and with Florian my two friends | O |
| The first a gentleman of broken means | O |
| His father's fault but given to starts and bursts | O |
| Of revel and the last my other heart | V |
| And almost my half self for still we moved | V |
| Together twinned as horse's ear and eye | I2 |
| - | |
| Now while they spake I saw my father's face | O |
| Grow long and troubled like a rising moon | J2 |
| Inflamed with wrath he started on his feet | V |
| Tore the king's letter snowed it down and rent | V |
| The wonder of the loom through warp and woof | K2 |
| From skirt to skirt and at the last he sware | F2 |
| That he would send a hundred thousand men | L2 |
| And bring her in a whirlwind then he chewed | V |
| The thrice turned cud of wrath and cooked his spleen | C2 |
| Communing with his captains of the war | F2 |
| - | |
| At last I spoke 'My father let me go | H |
| It cannot be but some gross error lies | O |
| In this report this answer of a king | T |
| Whom all men rate as kind and hospitable | M2 |
| Or maybe I myself my bride once seen | C2 |
| Whate'er my grief to find her less than fame | G2 |
| May rue the bargain made ' And Florian said | V |
| 'I have a sister at the foreign court | V |
| Who moves about the Princess she you know | H |
| Who wedded with a nobleman from thence | O |
| He dying lately left her as I hear | F2 |
| The lady of three castles in that land | V |
| Through her this matter might be sifted clean ' | - |
| And Cyril whispered 'Take me with you too ' | - |
| Then laughing 'what if these weird seizures come | N2 |
| Upon you in those lands and no one near | F2 |
| To point you out the shadow from the truth | O2 |
| Take me I'll serve you better in a strait | V |
| I grate on rusty hinges here ' but 'No ' | - |
| Roared the rough king 'you shall not we ourself | P2 |
| Will crush her pretty maiden fancies dead | V |
| In iron gauntlets break the council up ' | - |
| - | |
| But when the council broke I rose and past | V |
| Through the wild woods that hung about the town | Q2 |
| Found a still place and plucked her likeness out | V |
| Laid it on flowers and watched it lying bathed | V |
| In the green gleam of dewy tasselled trees | O |
| What were those fancies wherefore break her troth | B2 |
| Proud looked the lips but while I meditated | V |
| A wind arose and rushed upon the South | A2 |
| And shook the songs the whispers and the shrieks | O |
| Of the wild woods together and a Voice | O |
| Went with it 'Follow follow thou shalt win ' | - |
| - | |
| Then ere the silver sickle of that month | R2 |
| Became her golden shield I stole from court | V |
| With Cyril and with Florian unperceived | V |
| Cat footed through the town and half in dread | V |
| To hear my father's clamour at our backs | O |
| With Ho from some bay window shake the night | V |
| But all was quiet from the bastioned walls | O |
| Like threaded spiders one by one we dropt | V |
| And flying reached the frontier then we crost | V |
| To a livelier land and so by tilth and grange | S2 |
| And vines and blowing bosks of wilderness | O |
| We gained the mother city thick with towers | O |
| And in the imperial palace found the king | T |
| - | |
| His name was Gama cracked and small his voice | O |
| But bland the smile that like a wrinkling wind | V |
| On glassy water drove his cheek in lines | O |
| A little dry old man without a star | F2 |
| Not like a king three days he feasted us | O |
| And on the fourth I spake of why we came | G2 |
| And my bethrothed 'You do us Prince ' he said | V |
| Airing a snowy hand and signet gem | T2 |
| 'All honour We remember love ourselves | O |
| In our sweet youth there did a compact pass | O |
| Long summers back a kind of ceremony | X |
| I think the year in which our olives failed | V |
| I would you had her Prince with all my heart | V |
| With my full heart but there were widows here | F2 |
| Two widows Lady Psyche Lady Blanche | U2 |
| They fed her theories in and out of place | O |
| Maintaining that with equal husbandry | X |
| The woman were an equal to the man | K |
| They harped on this with this our banquets rang | V2 |
| Our dances broke and buzzed in knots of talk | W2 |
| Nothing but this my very ears were hot | V |
| To hear them knowledge so my daughter held | V |
| Was all in all they had but been she thought | V |
| As children they must lose the child assume | E2 |
| The woman then Sir awful odes she wrote | V |
| Too awful sure for what they treated of | X2 |
| But all she is and does is awful odes | O |
| About this losing of the child and rhymes | O |
| And dismal lyrics prophesying change | S2 |
| Beyond all reason these the women sang | V2 |
| And they that know such things I sought but peace | O |
| No critic I would call them masterpieces | O |
| They mastered me At last she begged a boon | J2 |
| A certain summer palace which I have | Y2 |
| Hard by your father's frontier I said no | H |
| Yet being an easy man gave it and there | F2 |
| All wild to found an University | X |
| For maidens on the spur she fled and more | F2 |
| We know not only this they see no men | L2 |
| Not even her brother Arac nor the twins | O |
| Her brethren though they love her look upon her | F2 |
| As on a kind of paragon and I | I2 |
| Pardon me saying it were much loth to breed | V |
| Dispute betwixt myself and mine but since | O |
| And I confess with right you think me bound | V |
| In some sort I can give you letters to her | F2 |
| And yet to speak the truth I rate your chance | O |
| Almost at naked nothing ' | - |
| Thus the king | T |
| And I though nettled that he seemed to slur | F2 |
| With garrulous ease and oily courtesies | O |
| Our formal compact yet not less all frets | O |
| But chafing me on fire to find my bride | V |
| Went forth again with both my friends We rode | V |
| Many a long league back to the North At last | V |
| From hills that looked across a land of hope | Z2 |
| We dropt with evening on a rustic town | Q2 |
| Set in a gleaming river's crescent curve | A3 |
| Close at the boundary of the liberties | O |
| There entered an old hostel called mine host | V |
| To council plied him with his richest wines | O |
| And showed the late writ letters of the king | T |
| - | |
| He with a long low sibilation stared | V |
| As blank as death in marble then exclaimed | V |
| Averring it was clear against all rules | O |
| For any man to go but as his brain | Q |
| Began to mello | H |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
(1)
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About The Princess (part 1)
The Princess (part 1) is a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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